NORMAN, EDWARD ALBERT

NORMAN, EDWARD ALBERT (1900–1955), U.S. financier and philanthropist. Norman, who was born in Chicago, attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point before transferring to Harvard. He worked for The Survey (1924–25) and as a research secretary for the Cooperative League of the U.S. (1925–28) before assuming the management of his family's various financial interests. Although a non-Zionist, Norman was extremely interested in the welfare of Palestine and its people and he urged a roof organization to coordinate and funnel the American Jewish aid for Palestinian educational, cultural, and social service institutions. The result was the founding of the American Fund for Israel Institutions (1939), of which Norman was president at his death (see *America-Israel Cultural Foundation).

His other posts in Jewish organizational and communal life included president of the American Economic Commission for Palestine (1939–43); national secretary for the American Jewish Committee (1946–55); non-Zionist member of the Jewish Agency's Executive Council; governor of the Hebrew University (1949–55); and director of the Joint Distribution Committee (1936–55). Norman was also president of the Group Farming Research Institute (1940–55), founded for the purpose of studying cooperative systems throughout the world; treasurer of the Urban League (1928–38); and chairman of the finance commission of the Association of American Indian Affairs.